Artist Point Berry Cobbler

You can always get fresh fruit at Disney World, but it must be berry season in Florida because the blueberries and strawberries seem fatter, juicier, sweeter and more prolific than usual. They’re so good, I’ve spent the trip thinking of ways I can use them back home in Texas. Thanks to AJ at the Disney Food Blog, I have one great option. Here’s AJ from Disney Food Blog guest posting with one of Disney’s most popular berry desserts.

From AJ……..

Ladies and gentlemen, I am an amateur baker at best and have a burny-smelling kitchen at worst, so I was quite pleased with how this cobbler turned out. I’m also glad to have the chance to contribute to the Cookie Madness “things to do with blueberries” fiesta happening around here these days!

A little background — Artist Point is a signature (i.e. expensive) restaurant in Disney World’s Wilderness Lodge Resort. Its featured dishes revolve around ingredients typically found in the United States’ northwest regions — think Tillamook and Black Diamond Cheddar, buffalo and venison, salmon, and lots of berries!

The most famous dessert they serve is this simple Berry Cobbler, which even I can make. This isn’t all that sweet and the taste is light, which is why I recommend topping with a high-quality vanilla ice cream — the flavors marry very well and you can actually taste and appreciate the sweetness of the ice cream. Also, the cobbler puffs up with a crusted top, which I think would greatly benefit from the use of larger sugar crystals on top. Possibly, mid-way through baking, sprinkle with some massive sugar crystals to punch up the sweet a bit and give a really great look and texture.

The recipe is from Cooking With Mickey and the Disney Chefs by Pam Brandon, copyright 2004. There were a couple of snags when I made it, mostly involving cooking time and temp. I ended up having to turn the oven up to 370 to get the cobbler to bake thoroughly, and the timing was probably about 35 minutes versus the 20-25 listed in the recipe.

Thanks to Anna for letting me practice my baking and showcase it here on Cookie Madness! Most days, you can find me over at the Disney Food Blog, where I cover news, reviews, and information about food in Disney’s parks and resorts!

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt. With a pastry blender, two knives used scissor style, or your hands, blend in 1/2 cup butter until crumbly. With a fork, stir in the egg and mix just enough to blend. Add heavy cream and mix just enough to incorporate (do not overmix).

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees f. Lightly grease a 9-in cake pan, line the bottom with wax paper and grease the paper.

3. Press the dough evenly into the bottom of the cake pan. Place the blueberries on top of the dough and sprinkle with the brown sugar. Place the remaining two tblspoons butter pieces over the berries.

4. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Remove the cake from the pan, cut in wedges, and serve with blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries.

Comments

We’ve seen the berry cobbler at Artist Point undergo numerous transformations.
The first time we had it in 1994, it was like a very soft scone studded with blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries. Delicious! We daydreamed about it.
The second time we had it, it was more of an ordinary berry cobbler with a crumb topping. Our response = eh…
When we had it last December, it was more like a bowl of warm sticky sweet berries topped with an orange flavored cookie dough that had been toasted under a broiler (best description I can give) & it was accompanied with gran marnier ice cream — we wanted to lick the bowl.
The food at WDW restaurants seems to change slightly when the head chef changes – I certainly can’t complain about what we were served in December.

Sue — This was a very interesting cobbler, but very easy to make! Certainly something you could whip up for last-minute company, and your kitchen smells all buttery, which is an obvious plus!

Nora — Agreed. Disney’s restaurants are often inconsistent. In some cases (California Grill’s market-inspired menu) that’s good. In other cases (your favorite dish inexplicably goes bad over several years) it’s bad. I guess we just have to enjoy surprises!

This recipe will most closely resemble what you had in 1994 — a soft scone-type dessert with blueberries. I’m headed to Artist Point in September and hope to enjoy your most recent version of the dessert as well!

I am going to the grocery store this morning and buying the blueberries so I can make this! My mouth is watering just thinking about how good this is going to taste!!! lol Thanks so much for the delicious recipe!

I just visited my family in FL last week and my mom and I went blueberry picking – OMG, the bushes were loaded and we picked over 7 lbs in half an hour! They were seriously the best blueberries I’ve had, huge and so sweet. We thought we went overboard but between 6 of us we demolished them in 3 days and my mom sent us home with plastic containers full of blueberries – so worth carrying on the plane in my backpack 🙂

While I was there I made this cobbler for the fam – http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Triple-Berry-Crisp/Detail.aspx I reduced the butter and brown sugar to 1 cup each and it was fantastic, loved having crust on both the bottom and top of the berries. We brought some to my 95 year old grandma in her nursing home and though she couldn’t remmeber having it the next day the nurses said she liked it 🙂

Hello! I made this recipe tonight and it was awesome!!! Not too sweet, just rich enough – and you don’t have to have the ice cream with it for it to just be great over-all! Everyone loved it (even my kids, who are not use to eating blueberries!) I will have to make it again and play though with the time/temp thing. I also live at a higher elevation (Rockie Moutain high) so those things come into play with every recipe I have! Anyway, it was great and will be added to my recipes to make again and again!